1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to the field of aviation imaging systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
Infrared cameras (or infrared radiation detectors) are employed in airborne applications such as, but not exclusive to, an enhanced vision system and a remote vision system. One type of infrared radiation detector could be a detector known as a microbolometer. A microbolometer may be comprised of an array of cells commonly referred to as pixels. Infrared radiation striking the material of each pixel may heat up the material and change its electrical properties such as its electrical resistance. The resistance change may be measured and processed into temperatures used to create a visible image using techniques known to those skilled in the art.
Although a microbolometer may be operable and produce desired results when exposed to many sources of radiation, there may be an occasion in which the microbolometer is exposed to solar radiation or other high-intensity sources of radiation (e.g., a missile plume). If so, some of the pixels may become over-saturated; that is, a maximum exposure limit of each pixel within an area may have been exceeded, a maximum threshold to which the pixel is designed and defined by a manufacturer of the microbolometer. If the pixel maximum exposure limit is exceeded, the pixel may suffer a physical modification that could render the pixel as unreliable and/or inoperative due to an undesirable alteration of the electrical properties, resulting in an undesirable but likely induction of digital artifacts into the processing of a digital image; moreover, visual artifacts could be presented to the viewer of the digital image.